Joan: What time tomorrow? Man: 5:00 downstairs. Tom: The quality that Joan
had was an earthiness. It wasn't in an aloof-like
goddess like a garbo. It might be the girl
who's sitting next to you
at the local movie show, it might be the girl
who's working next to
you on the assembly line as the part she often played. (lively music) She was one of the people who
were going to see her movies. (lively music) Ben: People say,
"Oh, she was lucky "and she got in because of
her looks and all the rest." What made her a star was I
worked my buns off to get here and I'm not going to lose it. (gentle music) Cliff: I think she felt
because she crossed
those railroads tracks that she was maybe fraudulent. That she wasn't the real
thing because she was acting and trying to act the grand dom. And I go on to reassure,
"Joan, you are the real thing. "You certainly hit some
hard knocks and you made
them all work for you." Herbert: She learned from
the experience of doing it and she learned by
watching other people. I feel she developed more
as an actress than almost
anybody in the business with the exception
of Marilyn Monroe. (gentle music) John: Joan was a woman
who lived a dream. She became everything
she dreamed about. But most of all,
she became a star. (gentle music) Joan: (sung) Crazy about your
smile, free and easy style. (sung) You're my love and
[child], got a feelin' for you. Bob: Much has been written
about Marilyn Monroe's
childhood in this time. Joan: (sung) I like your
[unintelligible] too. Bob: Joan Crawford's
childhood would make Marilyn seem like Rebecca
of Sunnybrook Farm. There's a lot of mysteries
surrounding Joan's father. He disappeared quite
early, never appeared again So, the mother was
charged with raising this
girl and her brother, and she was not
very responsible. Joan: I worked my
way through St. Agnes
Academy waiting on tables and then I worked my way
through Rockingham Academy from 9 years of age to
13 waiting on tables. I never went beyond
the 6th grade, that's
one of my hang ups. Bob: Her ambition
was gargantuan. She saw the way to get
out of the slums in
going into show business. There wasn't much she could do. She couldn't sing very well, she
wasn't even much of a dancer. (lively music) That was the era of
the Charleston and
everybody was doing it, and the more movements you made, the more vivacity you got
into your performance, the
more the audience loved it. Vincent: She had a job
in Chicago working in
some little night club and then some producer saw her. She went to New York and
got a job in the Shubert
Musical in the chorus. Joan: I was never good
enough to be in the
first line of the chorus. The second line of the chorus of
Innocent Eyes with Mr. Shubert and Mr. Harry Rapf spotted
me so I had the test. And then they just sent me
where I say put under contract
to Metro-Goldyn-Mayer. Elva: This made her
come to California and when she got off the
train, there was no one there. She didn't know what to do,
she didn't know who to call and finally a young man
came up and he said, "Would you by any chance
be Lucille LeSueur?" And she said, "Yes, I am." And he said, "Oh well,"
he said, "You know, "this man never picks
little girls like you. "He usually gets tall,
glamorous looking showgirls." (lively music) Bob: When Joan arrived at MGM, it was already the giant
among the Hollywood studios. Thanks to Irving Thalberg
and Louis B. Mayer, they
had a real factory going. They had more stars than
there are in the heavens. That was their slogan. And they would take someone
like Joan Crawford and
give her dancing lessons, give her lessons in
acting and then fencing
and horseback riding. And she became a
WAMPAS Baby Star which was the crowning glory
for starlets of those days. (lively music) Elva: In the beginning, they
had no one to do make up or hair or clothes or anything. I mean, the people in her
position at that time had
to deduce what they could. (lively music) Her love was dancing
and she thought that if she could get
a picture dancing that
she could sell herself. And she used to go down
to The Ambassador Hotel
when they had dances there and naturally being
a terrific dancer she
attracted the attention. Tom: She started just
as a stock player. Sometimes you would only find
her in the back of crowd scenes. When she played
Norma Shearer's back because Norma Shearer was
playing a dual role as a
good girl and bad girl so in the over the shoulder
shots it was Crawford's shoulder that was standing in
for Norma's double. There were several films
which she probably made under the name of
Lucille LeSueur. John: Louis B. Mayer, hey, it
sounds like she's in the sewer. (laughs) So, we got to get
a new name for her. Joan: They had a contest
in the magazine and the
first choice was Joan Arden and a Joan Arden, an
extra girl sued Metro. So they took second choice,
Joan Crawford and I said, "Oh, sounds like craw fish." And Billy Haines,
my best friend said, "Better craw fish than
cranberries served with turkeys. "I hope you never make one." Elva: She went to the make
up department and they
gave her a case of makeup and it was just a trial
and error thing with her until she finally arrived at a
look that she thought was right. Herbert: Her make up developed
from watching other people. She went through a series
of different faces. She developed her eye makeup,
she developed the mouth makeup, she created Joan Crawford much
like the name was also created. Bob: Slowly she became a
real actress and a real
personality on the screen. There's something about stars,
a camera falls in love with them and that love is transmitted
on to the silver screen and people fall in
love with them too. They can't take
their eyes off them. (lively music) Tom: As she progressed
through the 20's, she finally got a role
that made her very popular which was Our Dancing Daughters, and it established the
jazz baby type of role that Crawford was to play at
that early stage in her career. What they showed on the screen
was probably wilder and crazier than the reality was but America
wanted to see things in excess and Joan Crawford was
there to give it to them. They put her with some of
their very established players whose names were going
to carry the picture. Lon Chaney, Charles
Reid, John Gilbert, and these increased
her box office value and by the time she finally
carried a picture herself, she was a marketable commodity. Vincent: In those days to be
a big success in Hollywood, you had to be
invited to Pickfair which was the home of Douglas
Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. And she was never invited there but finally, she went to
see a play that Douglas
Fairbanks Jr. was acting in and liked him very much, went
back stage to congratulate him and they started
to see each other. It was after she and Doug
Fairbanks Jr. got married that she was eventually
invited to Pickfair. Elva: And then Joan went
through a terrible period there. At night they had
a lot of guests in. They always had men use ... It was very, very formal. She said she never dared picked
up a fork or a knife or anything that she didn't watch to see
which one Mary picked up. Doug Senior thought
this was very funny. He watched her one
day and so as a joke, when the fish course was served
he picked up a knife and used it and she was sitting next
to him so she picked the
knife and used it also and then afterwards she
realized she was wrong, she
saw Mary picked up a fork. So she said she was
terribly embarrassed. Well, Doug Senior thought
that was very, very funny. Bob: I think the marriage
to Doug Fairbanks Jr.
was a romantic affair. They were both young, both
starting out as actors. There was an added
incentive in this liaison. Joan: (sung) I could turn up
[no], I could be that low. (sung) Clap your hands through
[toe], got a feelin' for you. (sung) If you ever see
somebody who can love somebody. Bob: She had come up from
the slums of Kansas City and she was kind of ignored
when she was first at MGM. Finally accepted as a star
so it was wonderful for her. Joan: (sung) They've asked me
that, got a feelin' for you. (lively music) Joan: In 1929, everybody
panicked at Metro
but I mean everybody. Executives, actors, actresses. Starlets didn't know
enough and I was a starlet
so I wasn't afraid. I did my first talkie, the
Untamed with Bob Montgomery and I heard my voice and I said,
"That's not me that's a man." Bob: She studied the other
stars, Garbo, Shearer. Learned their tricks,
learned how they knew
where all the lights were and what good
lighting was for them. Joan: When I first started
in pictures, Adrian said, "I've never seen
such big shoulders. "She should be the female
Johnny Weissmuller." Adrian said, "I can't cut
her shoulder off so I'll
just exaggerate them." That's how the padded
shoulders came in. Elva: Which turned out to
be a dress that she wore in
the picture Letty Lynton. When that picture was released, I think every manufacturer on
7th Avenue copied that dress. Bob: Joan was very ambitious. Louis B. Mayer was not
particularly a pal of hers. She knew she would have to fight
for roles, she went after them. Cliff: She told me
of one incident where she knew there was a script
that she was interested in. She went in to Louis B. Mayer's
office when he wasn't there and nipped it, took it
with her to the lady's room and stayed in the lady's
room reading the script and came out that
character and walked into
Louis B. Mayer's office, and convinced him that she was
the character, got the role. Bob: Grand Hotel was a
great, great boost to
Joan Crawford's morale. It was just a galaxy of stars
and she was one of them. There was John Barrymore,
Lionel Barrymore, Greta Garbo, Louis Stone,
Wally Beery, Jean Hersholt. She only played a secretary
so it was typecasting for her. She usually played
the shop girl and the
secretary in those years. She had no scenes with
Garbo and that was a great
disappointment to her. But she palled around with
Jack Barrymore particularly. Jack: Weren't you
playing something? Joan: Yes, the typewriter. Jack: Oh, you're a
little stenographist. Joan: Yes, I'm a
little stenographist. Jack: That's fascinating. I don't suppose you would
take some dictation from
me some time, would you? Well, how about some tea then? Joan: Tea would spoil my dinner. I only have 1 meal a day and
I'd rather hate to spoil it. Bob: She really became a major
star out of that one film. (classic music) Tom: She wanted to
do Rain rather badly. It was the first
established great role
that she was to attack. The character of Sadie
Thompson in Rain had
already been played on stage by Jeanne Eagels and on
screen by Gloria Swanson. She has a lot to live up
to when she did this role. Cliff: I can speak to
my earliest impressions
as a little kid going to the Granada theater
in La Jolla, California
population then 4,000. Seeing Joan Crawford
on the screen as I did, to me she was the
ultimate seductress. (classic music) (laughing) Man wearing hat: Lads, boys,
I want you to meet Thompson. Sadie meet the boys. Joan: Boys. Man wearing hat: And
this is Mr. Horn. Joan: Mr. Horn, your
climate's bummed. Mr. Horn: Sorry Sadie,
it's the best we got. Joan: I'm not blaming you. So, what's this about the delay? How long am I booked for
this big, do you know? Cliff: I recall seeing her
seducing Reverend Davidson
played by Walter Houston. If the lady could
seduce Reverend Davidson
that was something. Walter: Innocent or guilty, you
have got to serve your sentence. It's the only way you can
prove you are worthy of mercy. Joan: No Mr. Davidson, your god
and me could never be shipmates. And the next time you
talk to him you can
tell him this for me, that Sadie Thompson
is on her way to hell! Walter: Stop! This
has gone far enough! Joan: Oh no, it hasn't
gone far enough. You've been telling me
what's wrong with me, now I'm going to tell you
what's wrong with you. You keep yelling at me to be
punished, to go back and suffer. How do you know
what I've suffered? You don't know, you don't
care and you don't even ask and you call
yourself a Christian! Walter: Our father
who art in heaven Joan: If that's what you want. Joan: You believe in torture. Joan: You know you're
big and you know you're
strong and get the law Walter: Give us this
day our daily bread. Joan: But I've got the
ball to stand here and say you hang me and
be damned to you! Clark: You better? Bob: She started getting
into important roles
especially with Clark Gable. Joan: Well, what do
you know about that. He can actually smile. (lively music) Bob: This combination of
this manliness of Gable and this perky, independent,
bright, electric young woman just made magic on the screen. Clark: It's years and
years of hard work. Clark: It takes
guts and brains. Clark: And after
you've given everything maybe something will
come out, maybe nothing. Joan: Something's
got to come through. Clark: Well, I suppose if you
feel it you got it, got it. Joan: Yeah. Clark: You like to dance? Joan: More than
anything in the world. Clark: You want to work with me? Joan: Yes Mr. [Gable]. Joan: Yes sir. Joan: Thank you. (classic music) And if I loved you so
much it was killing me, and I knew you'd haunt me
for the rest of my life I still wouldn't
have any part of you. I only hope they take you back
to that prison you belong in. Bob: I think the success
of Gable and Crawford was
that they were equals. Clark: Supposing I was the
guy you were dumb enough
to fall for, then what? Joan: Here's what. Bob: They made 8 or 10
pictures together and nearly
all of them were hits. Joan: He was a king
forever he liked. He earned the title. He walked like one,
he behaved like one and he was the most masculine
male I have ever met in my life. Elva: She and Clark had a
love affair that lasted for
years and years and years. But she told me she was
madly in love with the man. But she told me that
she realized that the
marriage would never last. She had divorced Douglas
Fairbanks and it was a
very sad situation for her. Franchot: Well you
double-crossed me Jenny. You're a success,
you're marvelous. Bob: Her next marriage
was to a very good actor and a very nice man
named Franchot Tone. Franchot: You could still go on. Voiceover: The Junior
League Polo Benefit. Nearby are screen stars
Barbara Stanwyck, Franchot
Tone and Joan Crawford. Joan starts things going. Bob: The romance and
marriage to Franchot Tone
it was a not a career move because she was a much
bigger star than he was. In fact, she helped his career
by having him co-star with her. Elva: He did an awful
lot of things for Joan. He taught her, in fact he wanted
her to go on the stage with him. Bob: He was well-educated, he
was a son of a rich family. He was associated with a
group theater in New York. Elva: He thought she would
be marvelous on the stage. She had stage fright, she could
have never worked on the stage. Bob: I remember Franchot
Tone saying to somebody, part of the reason that their
marriage broke up was that he just ran out of adjectives. Every time she came down they
were going out somewhere, she was dressed to the nines
and he had to exalt her and say how gorgeous she looked,
how perfectly groomed she was and what a great dress and her
hair was beautiful and so forth. He just got tired of that. Herbert: Joan Crawford
loved going to New York. She loved seeing plays and
when she'd see a play that
she felt was right for her she went to the head of
MGM, Irving Thalberg, and she would tell him
that she'd love to do
this particular play. And before she knew it, Irving
Thalberg's wife, Norma Shearer, would be doing the part. Bob: Actually she had
more success in films particularly in the late
30's than did Shearer. And so they realized what a
box office champion they had and they gave her great
co-stars: Gable, Tracy. She was always
combined with top stars and that's the best and easiest
way to really build a career. (classic music) Tom: The importance
of The Women is that it was the first true villain
that Crawford was to play. Joan: Tommy found out
I was a home girl. Woman: Home girl? Get her. Why don't you bother
quintuplets for babies? Joan: Because I'm all
the baby he wants. Tom: She wanted to play
this role very badly. It was an all star
MGM production. Everybody on the studio was in
it as long as they were female. (classic music) Rosalind: Take a good grip on
yourself, you're going to die. Stephen Haines is
stepping out on Mary. Woman on left: L'amour,
L'amour it's French for love. Paulette: You should have licked
that girl where she licked you, in his arms. Norma: Stephen split
up with you Crystal in
your heart, you know it. Woman: Yes, take my advice
because you put your
mind on your alimony. Woman: Alimony, with what
Stephen can get on you, he won't have to
give you a dime. Tom: Here at less in The Women, she had equal co starring
billing with her number 1
arch rival Norma Shearer. Norma: I've had 2 years to grow
claws mother, jungle wrath! Joan: She was married to the
boss and I was just an actress. She didn't like my dress
so she changed it 19 times. It cost the picture a fortune. (laughing) But I ended up wearing
the gold dress and turban. Joan: You're very
confident aren't you? Norma: Yes because I
know Stephen couldn't
love a girl like you. Joan: Well if he couldn't
he's an awfully good actor. (lively music) Vincent: She was very,
very nice to the crew. Always generous to everybody. Every now and then she
would come across somebody
that she didn't like and her anger and her
wrath just as extravagant
as she could be in a pray she could also be in a criticsm
if she didn't like something. (lively music) Elva: She was a perfectionist and I don't think she
was ever pleased with
anything she ever did. When she did A Woman's
Face, one whole side of
her face was disfigured. Joan: Did she? Melvyn: Yes and now
just towards the ... There we are, is that better? Elva: She felt that if
it was a good part that
was the important thing. The picture was the
important thing. Joan: You couldn't marry me. Melvyn: Have I asked
you to marry me? Joan: Well, no and you musn't. Melvyn: Why not? Joan: Because I
want to get married. I've always wanted
to get married. I want to have a
home and children. I want to go to market
and cheat the grocer and
fight with the landlord. I want to belong to the
human race, I want to belong! Elva: She'd had 2
miscarriages with Douglas
and she had 1 with Franchot. So, as a result she
decided to adopt. Christina, she adopted her
first and then she decided
she wanted a little boy so she adopted Christopher
and that was wonderful
for a long, long time. Bob: She was a pioneer in
this field because at that
time she was not married and it was very difficult,
if not impossible for women who are single or
divorced to adopt children. Elva: When we would
go on locations, they
would stand and cry and carry on, "Mommy,
please don't leave us. "Don't leave us, we
don't want you to go." And she would try to explain
to them that she had to go. This was her job
and she had to go. They would still beg
and cry and carry on. Bob: Joan Crawford came
to the end of her MGM days
in a very traumatic way. She had done 2 or
3 real ad flops. In those years, star's
lives as real top stars
didn't last very long, particularly the women. The women have a very
short shelf-life. People wanted to see
young actresses and bright
youth on the screen. And so, Crawford
was cast adrift. On her last day at the
studio, she said goodbye
to a few old friends and drove out the auto gate and
nothing was said, no speeches, and no gold watch,
no flowers even. Joan: While I was in good
company with Katharine Hepburn and Fred Astaire
and a few others, I thought, "Well, I'm through." Vincent: And then Jerry Wald
who was at Warner Brothers, very active and ambitious
producer persuaded
Warner to sign Crawford. And they signed her to
a long term contract I think for half of what her
salary had been at Metro. They submitted various scripts
to her which she turned down. She told me a story
once about when she got
a call from a producer to come into the studio
and she was very hopeful that they were going to
offer her a new script
and a good script. She got all dressed
up, bought a new hat. She was hoping that it would
couple better on how she looked and she said he turned
to her and he said, "Now I think this last
script that we sent to
you is a good script "and you should do it
because nobody wants you. "If you want to work you
ought to do this picture." She told me she went home and
she cried for hours afterward but she made up her mind, she
wasn't going to do anything, do any script that they
sent her unless they
sent her something good. Then finally the script
came for Mildred Pierce. Joan: Well, I think God
had his hand on my shoulder because Mr. Mike
Curtiz hated me. He wanted Barbara Stanwyck,
he wanted no part of me. He said, "I don't want
those big broad shoulders." I asked if I could please test. I did this test with Ann Blyth. At the end of the scene I
waited for cut, cut, cut. Nothing, no response
from the director. I looked at him he was streaming
with tears down his face and he said, "I love you, baby." I got the part. (gun shots) Voiceover: Mildred, a
name gasped in the night. Joan: You make me feel,
I don't know, warm. Zachary: And wanted. (classic music) Bob: It was a very successful
picture in which she
won the academy award. Something that she had been
hoping for, for a long time. Joan: You've been snooping
around ever since I got this job trying to find out what
it is and now you know. You know, don't you? Ann: Know what,
know what mother? Joan: You knew when you
gave that uniform to Lottie that it was mine, didn't you? Ann: Your uniform? Joan: Yes, I'm waiting tables
in a downtown restaurant. Ann: My mother, a waitress. Joan: I took the only
job I could get so you
and your sister could eat and have a place to sleep and
some clothes on your backs. Ann: Aren't the pies bad enough
that you have to degrade us? Joan: Veda don't talk like that! Ann: I'm really not surprised. You've never spoken of your
people, who you came from so perhaps it's natural. Maybe that's why father- (gasps) (gentle music) Joan: I'm sorry I did that. I would rather cut off my hand. I'd never have taken the
job if I hadn't wanted
to keep us all together. I don't think the public knows
what that Oscar means to us. It is one of the most
emotional things that can
ever happen to a human being. (lively music) Vincent: They changed
her contract at Warner's. After the rewrite of the
contract, she told me
she was getting $250,000
of [unintelligible] which was an enormous amount
of money back in the 40's. (classic music) Elva: She wanted anything
that was a good picture. Jerry Wald didn't want her to
do Humoresque because he said, "Joan, you're only in the
last part of the picture." She said, "I don't care." "If it's a good
picture," she says, "Then I can play and I'll play
Wally Beery's grandmother." Joan: You don't expect me
to believe that do you? John: I don't care
what you believe. Joan: I'd like to
slap your face. John: Why don't you try it. (glass breaking) Herbert: Most audiences have the
wrong impression of Crawford. She always portrayed a
very strong, willful woman. She was not that in real life. That was performance,
that was acting. She was anything but. Bob: That might have been the
dichotomy about Joan Crawford that she was very headstrong
and ambitious, almost
maniacally ambitious. And yet, she was
very vulnerable. She wanted to be liked. Vincent: After the break up
with the marriage with Tone, she felt that a home
needed a father and the
children needed a father and she met Philip Terry who
was under contract to MGM and she felt very
comfortable with him. But years later after
she divorced him she
said she made a mistake and she thought
being comfortable was
love but it wasn't. Elva: We were in Sedona,
Arizona and we were working
out in 120-degree heat. By that time she had adopted
twins too so she had 4
children to talk with. She would listen to all the
problems and finally she'd say, "Now, you keep a happy face and
you know that mommy loves you "and I'll call you
tomorrow night. "Now put your sister on." This went on for all 4 of
these children and then she
just collapsed afterwards. And I said to her
2, 3 nights later, I said, "Joan, how can
you do this every night?" She said, "Well,
they're children. "If I didn't they
wouldn't understand." She loved those children and I
think she was a devoted mother. Bob: I don't think anybody
will truly understand Joan's relationship to her
children, why she adopted them. I think she felt as a woman that she wouldn't be fulfilled
if she didn't have children. Herbert: Joan was a real task
master primarily with herself. And it did reflect
on to other people. She was a rigid mother,
very rigid and she was
rigid with the children. Cindy: She was a disciplinarian. She wanted us to grow up
independently, self-reliant and to set our goals to
what we believe was right. Bob: She was determined not
to let her kids fall into that kind of princess, prince
Hollywood syndrome that sadly a lot of
famous actor's children
have fallen into. Elva: She felt that
these children might
not have the money to live the kind of
life that she lived, and she wanted them to be able
to go out and face the world. Cindy: We had 1 cook
and we had our governess but we still had to make
our beds and wash our dishes and I think we were told when
we were about 4 or 5 years old, we had to bring our chairs
into the kitchen sink and
start washing the dishes. Elva: And of course the
children resented that because they felt that the
servants were there to do that and she knew that was wrong. And all she was doing was
just preparing them to
go out into the world. Ben: I saw her mostly when
she was with the twins and I also saw the way
she talked about them and she would talk about the
twins with a different tone than she talked to
Christina or Christopher. I do know she was
frustrated with Christopher. Joan and I had driven
down to visit her son who was in a military
boarding school and I know he hadn't
been writing home because
he just didn't want to. So I told him I felt I didn't
write to my mother enough and I thought it would
be nice if he did and I
think he did once or twice. Elva: I was assigned as a
customer on the Flamingo Road. I was so thrilled
about meeting her. I wondered how she
would react to somebody
that was a fan really. I walked in and I said I'm
here to help you today. She said, "Welcome abroad." Which relaxed me immediately
and I felt I was so fortunate, not only to find her
still the glamorous star, but a very warm and wonderful
person to work with. (lively music) Vincent: I've heard so
many stories about her and I didn't know
exactly what to expect. I thought she'd be very
demanding, overpowering
and overwhelming. What I saw which
surprised me was a woman who seemed very much down to
earth very simple, unpretentious and very smart in so far
as films were concern. You could see the signs of
age beginning to creep up but of course when she got made
up she looked wonderfully in it. She was very, very
nice to the crew. Always generous to everybody. One instance where
she misbehaved, when we were doing a picture
called Goodbye, My Fancy, it was the last film
I did with them. There was a young girl
in it named Janice Rule. Because she was a beginner
I was trying to help her and I spent maybe a
little more time than
normal talking with her and trying to make her
comfortable and getting
her into the role. And Joan for no reason at
all, became very jealous. I think for one thing, Janice
was very young and very pretty and then she was
very rude to Janice. And years later when Janice
Rule became a very good actress, Crawford sent her a letter
apologizing for the way
she had treated her. Jack: I have no place in your
life, Myra, no proper place. Joan: Without you
I have nothing. Herbert: When Joan was
cast in Sudden Fear, it was a demanding role that
she needed in her career. (classic music) Joan: At last. Herbert: One of the
actresses that she worked
with was Gloria Grahame and unlike most actresses
she liked Gloria Grahame
and was great help to her. I worked with Gloria Grahame
and Gloria Grahame told me that a lot of her performance
was guided by Crawford. Jack: Try to stand on
it, it's the best thing. Man: No, I don't
think she should. Irene: Exercise is good for it. Joan: Is it? Irene: Keeps the
circulation going. Joan: All right, Irene. Herbert: Joan Crawford
was an actress of
many different colors. Each role was a step
towards something better. She became the character
which many people don't do. (winding up toy) (ringing) She was good with people. People were in awe of her and
she was never in awe of herself. She was willing to walk up to
anybody, shake hands with them, talk with them, who are
you, what's you're name? Ben: She was always
sending notes. Always sending notes or
telegrams every time on my
birthday, at Christmas time. Bob: Fan letters with answered
in her own handwriting. She sent out thousands of
photographs hand autographed. Diane: She said to
me, "Never go out. "You must never go out dressed
like sometimes you dress. "You must always look
your best for your fans. "You never know who
you're going to see." (piano music) Ben: What made her a star was I
worked my buns off to get here and I'm not going to lose it. Therefore, if it meant
getting dressed up to go
to the market she'd do it. If it meant giving
one more interview to
somebody you can't stand but is going to help the
picture she would do it. She didn't complain,
she was a total pro. Joan: Hollywood, it's
given me my education, it's given me everything
I've ever earned. The power to adopt children,
to raise them, to educate them. I will never be
ungrateful for that. (piano music) (lively music) Ben: I had finished working
with Joan and Johnny Guitar and I was doing a picture
called The Rose Tattoo. I was being interviewed by
one of the movie magazines. One of the writers came
in and said to the editor, "Oh, you wanted me to do
a story on Joan Crawford." He said, "Oh yeah, that's
right, okay good, get at it." He's, "Well, what do you
want, good girl or a bitch?" And he said, "Um,
make her a bitch." I said, "Joan, how do you handle
that when people do that?" And she said, "Oh darling,
suppose they never
wrote about me at all." I thought she could
have been a politician. Joan: Any man's my man
if I want it that way. Betsy: Not Jed. Joan: Ask him. I won't go to him
with your lies. Joan: I wouldn't lie
to you about something
as important as this. I loved playing bitches
and I was a bitch in that. Who do you think? There's a lot of bitch in
every woman and a lot of
bitch in every man too. Cliff: It was my second film. I was a Broadway actor and knew
very little about movie acting. I had done 1 picture
picnic, returned to New York and then was called back
to do Autumn Leaves with
opposite Joan Crawford. (sung) Since you went
away the days grow long. (sung) And soon I'll
hear old winter's song. Joan: Good night. Cliff: Good night? Joan: Burt please don't
come back anymore. I mean it! Don't come back. Cliff: Can't we- (classic music) Cliff: Here's that woman
that seduced Walter Houston when I was a little
kid in La Jolla. She was a very directive
person and very well-organized and a damn good actress. Cliff: You conniving tramp. (slapping sound) Now that will teach
you, no more lies. I saw all 3 of you
through the door. She was able to summon up
some very real emotions. She'd turn to Charles
Lang who was our DP, our
director of photography. "Charlie, you want
tears maybe 1 eye?" She could drop a tear
out of the left eye or
the right or both eyes. I mean, I've worked with Helen
Hayes and other famous women but I've never seen that before. If you have a very
sad beginning, if
you've had a sad life, that's something that
actors use very, very often
to summon up an emotion when whatever happened to
you that broke your heart if you can recall that you
can summon up those tears. I think underneath that
very fierce, determined
individualistic strong Joan was a very sad little girl. (calm music) Elva: The last picture I worked
with her on was Esther Costello because she had
married Alfred Steele who was chairman of the
board of Pepsi Cola. (lively music) Bob: She found true strong
happiness and a sense
of security with him that she never found
with anybody else because he wasn't a
movie star, he wasn't
worried about he looked and he wasn't vying for
somebody else's part. He wasn't trying to get the
limelight away from her. Totally secure in
his position in life as she wanted to be in
hers but was not always. Cindy: When mother
married Al Steele he would
go up in Pepsi plants all over the United
States and Europe. We first went to Switzerland
and we were there twice on
our Christmas vacations. One with all 4 of us kids
and we went to [Samoritz]. We learned to iceskate. (lively music) Herbert: When Al Steele was
CEO, Joan attended meetings and eventually they
pointed her to the board. It got her accustomed speaking
to people, to being on a stage. She was terrified at the
very beginning but fell into
the routine of doing it. (lively music) Diane: I was just starting my
3rd movie, Best of Everything and Joan Crawford was
signed to play the head
of the publishing house And it was unfortunate
that she had ... That I met her at
maybe I consider her
weakest point in life her most vulnerable,
her most frail. She had just lost Alfred
Steele who was the, she said at some point,
the love of her life. When she would be called
to go before the camera, she was scared to death. A couple of times she caught
my eye before the take and I remember just going,
you know, you can do it. I think that gave her
confidence certainly when
she got it right on camera and had the momentum going
and knew her words and
knew what she was doing There was no question
that you could see everything that made
Joan Crawford a star. Herbert: There's something
about long lasting female stars that is kind of peculiar
and interesting. In that they have kept
their position by being
strong women, strong-willed. Here were the 2 most famous
grand doms of cinema history and for Bob Aldrich who
was the director was
more like a lion tamer. Davis: Oh Blanche, you know
we've got rats in the cellar? [slow music] [screams] [laughing] [crying] Herbert: When they
started to shoot Whatever
Happened to Baby Jane and Davis came out in that
white makeup, Joan was shocked. She couldn't believe
what she was looking at. Davis was very nasty to her
and I was there to witness
it very short with Joan and Joan was not a fighter. She just did not know
how to fight back and who could fight
back with Davis? She had words at her command
that Joan could not fathom. Then it seemed
retribution was at hand. Davis had Joan tied in the bed. Davis had to pull Joan
out of the bed whereupon
Davis said to Joan, "Be very careful now
when you get off that bed
because I have a bad back." She says, "Don't become
a deadweight for me." You could almost see the light
bulb going on over Joan's head but she had an idea. So, as Davis pulled
her out of the bed Joan
became a deadweight. They both fell on the floor,
Joan fell on top of Davis and all you could hear was
Davis screaming and swearing. Davis was out for a few
days, her back was injured and Joan got up and practically
brushed off her hands (clapping) and walked off the set. Bob: The movie set
was still her home. She had no other life until
she married Al Steele and
became Mrs. Pepsi Cola. Joan: I sold Joan
Crawford for so long, all I have to do now is let
Joan Crawford sell Pepsi Cola. Bob: She wanted to extend her
career as long as possible, even taking this
quickie pictures which were in and out of
theaters in a week or so. Tom: She always wanted to
please and she would gauge the public's taste as to what
they wanted at a particular time and she would change
like a chameleon. (gentle music) In the 20's, Joan was
the flap or the jazz baby and in the 30's
the depression era demanded a new type of heroine
to be accepted by the audiences and that was the woman
who's struggling through the
hardships of the depression. In the 40's she was
now getting older. She wasn't the young girl
coming up the hard way. She was the woman who
already came up, who
already was established. In the 50's now she
was a much more mature
actress in Autumn Leaves in love with Cliff Robertson,
much younger than her. Romanced and victimized by
Jack Palance in Sudden Fear, also the age difference,
a crucial plot point. In the next decade
in the 60's she began
doing the horror films. Joan Crawford's
unique achievement? Well, how about the fact that
she was a working actress, that she was an entertainer. (lively music) She always gave 110% in
everything that she ever did. There is never a case of you
finding a piece of film worth with Joan Crawford slamming. If you can pull a piece
of film out of the volt
that's 60 years old and still be dazzled by
the vibrancy of the persona and still be entertained
by the performance I don't think she ever expected
to give quite that much. (lively music) Bob: Joan Crawford was
a very proud woman. When sickness did come upon her, she was aging, she could
no longer look her best. It's sort of like the
legend of the elephants
who go away to die. So she hold up in her
apartment in New York and just pulled
down the curtain. John: You'd say, "Joan,
come and have dinner." "Oh my darling I'd
love to but I can't." I know she gave
away her little dog, she let her faithful
Mamacita, the maid go. She seemed to be
clearing up her life. Sad to say she died alone. (piano music) Crawford is one of those
images that's been tarnished. I really wasn't surprised when
Christina came out with that very viscous book of
hers Mommie Dearest. Herbert: These things
just didn't happen. She had a wonderful secretary
by the name of Betty Barker. Betty was with her for 27,
28 years and Betty said, "I must have been
living in another home. "I never saw this happen." The twins said the same thing. Cindy: She wasn't that
kind of person that my
sister, Christina, had said. She was very caring and loving. Herbert: I think
Christine was very, very
envious of Joan Crawford and her public and
her popularity and her
beauty, very envious. Joan called me on many
occasions to help Christine
get a job as an actress which I did on 2 occasions. John: Joan did everything
possible for her child. She wanted to be an actress,
she wanted to be Joan Crawford. Cindy: I've never seen
mother lose her cool. She never lost her
cool in front of us. I think sometimes she
showed her frustration but not in the cruelty that
the book had mentioned. She was a fine woman,
she had 2 fine careers. One in actress and
one as a businesswoman and she never lost control. Bob: The producer was
visiting Joan in her
apartment in New York. He noticed that there
was a little man in
a wheelchair there. Very aged and infirm
and white-haired. She never introduced him until
she went to the door with him and said to this producer,
"Thank you for coming by." The producer said,
"Who is that?" She said, "Well,
that's Franchot." Here at the end of
both their lives, she had taken in her old husband
from 30, 40 years before, was serving him up dinner
and trying to cheer him up and that was another
side that most people
don't hear about Joan. Diane: Joan's whole life
was work hard and be better. Be your best, be your
best whatever that was. There may never have
been enough security that allowed her to be
who she really was but
I applaud her strength. I really do. Cliff: I remember her coming
out of the club on 52nd Street. Her limousine didn't arrive. She'd always have a
small pocket of fans. The doorman said,
"Well, Mrs. Crawford,
should I get you a cab?" "Yes," she said. The cab arrived,
she got in the cab and the first thing she
did after the door closed was she turned on the light
inside the cab and then
she said to the driver. So that her fans could
see almost like the
queen in the carriage going off with the
light on at the back. She loved the light. She loved the attention. Voiceover: Ladies and
gentlemen, Ms. Joan Crawford. [people applauding] Joan: I never knew
there was so much love. [people applauding] [gentle music]
